Is there anything more difficult than an emotional reaction on an emotive topic?

So many marriages have dissipated in such circumstances. Facts become cudgels and recollections have all the accuracy of a plasticine Lugar.

When the Journal News, a local New York newspaper, thought it might be a good idea to post a Google map depicting all the local handgun owners and their addresses, voices and arms were raised.

One imagines that the editors of the Journal News had both good intentions -- it was very soon after the Newtown massacre -- and some inkling that this posting might raise the local (and even national) decibel level.

These were, in fact, permits that were "historical." The Journal News explained that Rockland County had offered this difficult information.

One might imagine that some of these 13,091 people might have felt slightly hysterical on hearing this news.

I know that, for some, gun ownership carries with it a sense of enormous of chest-puffing pride. For others, however, it is simply a form of discreet self-protection.

Being identified online in this way -- knowing that once something appears online it never actually disappears -- might be slightly discomforting.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that some of these permits dated from the 1930s.

Will the Journal News now post the names, addresses, names of lovers, names of dogs, names of previous lovers, and all the known kin of the Rockland County officials who curated this information? Please, let's not.

About the author

Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world.
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